Hundreds of construction workers sat on benches during their lunch breaks. Scores of police officers directed traffic. Men and women in suits toted briefcases back to their offices.

And dozens of tourists milled around the area, waiting in long lines to to visit the National September 11 Memorial just a day before the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They flipped through glossy books hawked by street vendors, showing the skyline as it hasn't looked in over a decade. They took pictures of the rapidly rising 1 World Trade Center (formerly called the Freedom Tower), the clouds and blue skies reflected in its glass facade on a day as clear and beautiful as the one that saw the destruction of the Twin Towers in the same spot.

On the eve of September 11, people from around the world were drawn to the place that was home to the World Trade Center 11 years ago. It became Ground Zero, a grim and sad reminder of what was missing, but today is filled with the energy of rebirth.

Luciana Valadao said curiosity brought her to the site of the World Trade Center Monday, during her 10-day trip to New York City from Brazil with her mother, Lucia.

"I've been here like 20 years ago, and I went to the Twin Towers," she said.

She wanted to find the spot where the buildings had stood.

"It's a very strange feeling, because we were walking around asking people where the Twin Towers were," Ms. Valadao said. "It's a very strange feeling to us. Is it here? Are we sure it was here? It's like it's missing."

Ms. Valadao said she thought the design of the Memorial, which she hoped to see this week, captured that feeling by creating two massive waterfalls in the footprint of the towers.

"It's missing something," she said.

Anita Joshua, Los Angeles

Anita Joshua of Los Angeles, 40, took a photograph of the memorial outside Engine Co. 10 firehouse, just a block from the National September 11 Memorial entrance.

"We're here visiting New York and obviously we wanted to see," Ms. Joshua said. "Just to pay tribute and see the area. I haven't been here in a few years."

Ms. Joshua said she visited the city just a year or two after Sept. 11, and the visit to the Ground Zero site was overwhelmingly emotional then.

"In some ways because it has been several years now, in some ways it's not as emotional," she said.

But whenever she gets to talking about it, Ms. Joshua said, the emotion comes back.

Kirsty Arthur, Australia

Kirsty Arthur said the atmosphere in Lower Manhattan around the site was "a bit crazy" Monday. Like others, she was unable to visit the Memorial. But just being in the area was powerful.

"It's still a shock, because I remember seeing it all on TV when I was still a student," she said. "Even though it wasn't a big impact for myself, you still feel it."

Ms. Arthur said she was glad there was a skyscraper filling the skyline there again.

"When you kind of look up, it's almost like you're expecting to see them there," she said.

Lori Horne, Atlanta

Lori Horne was visiting the Memorial Monday with a group of friends, including one who knew an FDNY firefighter who was a first responder.

"I was here in 2002," Ms. Horne said. "It's very different. It was still very new then."

But there were still many in New York grappling with the pain of that day 11 years ago.

"When we were at St. Paul's Church, there were a lot of really emotional people in St. Paul's [Monday]," Ms. Horne said.

Sarah Wilton and Jenna Fozard, United Kingdom

Sarah Wilton, 26, and Jenna Fozard, 25, who were visiting New York from the Isle of Mann in the United Kingdom, found they couldn't get a ticket to the Memorial Monday, with crowds of people trying to see the site on the day before the anniversary. So they sat on a concrete block in the shadow of 1 WTC.

The memorial was one of many spots they hoped to visit in New York during their trip -- along with other landmarks like the Statue of Liberty.

"Just to see it," Ms. Fozard said when asked why she came to the neighborhood. "It was a very big event."

"Especially because it's tomorrow," Ms. Wilton added.

Rosy Gibbs, Mexico

For Rosy Gibbs, a visit to Lower Manhattan to see 1 World Trade Center came after a trip that took her and friend Griselda Velez to the U.S. Open.

"We wanted to know how it is right now, to see the difference. We saw when they came down," on television, Ms. Gibbs said.

She liked the design of the buildings taking the place of the Towers.

"It's very nice," she said.

"It's beautiful," Ms. Velez added.

Jonna Filbir, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Jonna Filbir, a German native, was visiting the city with family Monday, having traveled from Plattsburgh, where she now lives.

"Of couse because we wanted to see where the World Trade Center was," she said. "I think it's a must-see when you visit New York."

Their trip to see 1 World Trade Center came after a helicopter tour.

"It looks very nice," she said.

Michael Mattison, Lancaster, Calif.

Michael Mattison, of Lancaster, Calif., was visiting the city with his wife, children, and in-laws. They had an appointment Monday afternoon to tour the memorial. Mattison, a Los Angeles firefighter, said it was a meaningful place for those in his profession.

"I've never been here," he said. "I'm just glad I can make it."

The family had also walked by Engine Co. 10, he said, and looked at the skyscrapers rising in the area.

"I still haven't put it all together," Mattison said. "It's just so big, trying to think of what happened there."

Adriana Santos, Brazil

Adriana Santos last visited New York City in 1999. Her friend asked her to visit the Twin Towers, but Ms. Santos is a little spooked by heights.

"I told my friend, 'No, the next time we go.'"

Ms. Santos did visit the spot where the towers were Monday, on her return trip to New York with her husband Jose Carlos.

With her sister Mary Ball visiting from England, Ann Field and her husband, Herb, and son Jason, decided to visit New York City this week. They stood outside the memorial at Engine 10 after touring the 9/11 Memorial.

"Fantastic," Ann Field said of the memorial's waterfalls and trees. "Sad. Extremely sad."

Ms. Ball tried to describe how it felt to be in the space and know what once stood there.

"I still can't believe the two massive buildings stood in that area," she said.

"I thought that it was not quite as compelling as the Vietnam War Memorial," Herb Field weighed in, saying the Wall in Washington D.C. always hits him very hard.

His son Jason suggested that was likely because of the sheer scope of the 9/11 Memorial. He recalled a trip to New York the family had planned for Columbus Day in 2001 -- just a month after the attacks. They kept their plans and visited a New York that was very different from the one they visited yesterday.

As they drove through the Lincoln Tunnel on that trip, Jason Field recalled, they heard President George W. Bush on the radio announcing the start of bombing in Afghanistan.

"The smell," Field recalled of his trip to Manhattan, "was the big thing you never forgot."